Manafort volunteered to testify before House Intelligence Committee in its Russia probe

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post


By Karoun Demirjian March 24 at 10:58 AM

House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes said that Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, has volunteered to testify before his committee, which is investigating alleged ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia as well as the Kremlin’s activities in the 2016 election.

Nunes made the announcement on Friday morning, adding that the committee had also asked FBI Director James B. Comey and NSA head Adm. Michael S. Rogers to return and brief the panel.

Comey appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday and confirmed the bureau was probing Russia’s role in the elections — as well as Trump aides’ possible ties to the Kremlin.

Nunes’s announcement that Manafort, through his lawyer, offered to speak to the committee followed a controversial week in which the California Republican lawmaker personally briefed President Trump about new revelations he said potentially demonstrate that Trump and his campaign aides may have been swept up in legal surveillance activities by the intelligence community during the presidential transition period.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/manafort-volunteered-to-testify-before-house-intelligence-committee-in-its-russia-probe/2017/03/24/7235a442-10a0-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?pushid=58d53455b8e8e81d00000088&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&

[greymattermom]

1. Would it be under oath?

What are the consequences of lying to a congressional committee?

[Chasstev365]

2. Only if you are a Democrat or peon

[Marcuse]

17. Would the oath be on an asbestos Bible ?

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. He has no worries, Putin and Trump will protect him and he will lie, about everything.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Spin control

direct from Moscow. This is the first attempt to make the issue go away.

[NCjack]

5. Trump set up the Manafort appearance before the House IC.

The triangle is:
1. Manafort gives questions (and his answers) to Trump.
2. Trump gives them to Nunes.
3. Nunes asks Manafort the questions and leads him through the testimony.

Manafort briefs Trump on the results of his appearance, gives follow up Q&A, etc. to spin the triangle.

[bettyellen]

14. Exactly. I'm sure DTs been leaking stories in order to promote them too.

[iluvtennis]

6. As a "volunteer" bet he won't be sworn in to tell whole truth and nothing but the truth. charade

[turbinetree]

7. Hey Nunes, BS

we want a special prosecutor, this is total BS, the country needs to know if there is a f***ing spy in the government

[Sanity Claws]

8. If he testifies and messes up in Putin's mind,

expect to find him dead under mysterious circumstances.

[liberal N proud]

9. I agee.

[Cosmocat]

12. IMO - Roger Stone and Carter Page

need to be VERY careful about what they eat and drink.

They are the low hanging fruit.

[mopinko]

19. if i were page,

i would be singing my little heart out. far as i can tell he is a little fish caught in the net. unless there is more to the man than i see.

[Cosmocat]

20. Yep

nm

[wishstar]

24. He may hope his lying testimony to cover up will keep him in good graces with Putin

All these Putin puppets are scared and desperate, and either their offers to talk to Congress are motivated by need to lie and prove their loyalty to Putin (probably why Page gave his interviews to media) and/or hoping for to acquire some kind of legal immunity as their Repub lawyers are well aware of how Oliver North's Iran Contra Congressional testimony caused his convictions to be overturned.

[old guy]

10. Why is Nunes still on this committee? He has no credibility at all.

[INdemo]

11. This is now a fucking circus

This is now an Intelligence committee with absolutely NO credibility and if the Ranking Democrat allows this to happen it is like having Spicer testify....NO NO NO..
A Special Prosecutor is the only way we can find out the truth

[neohippie]

13. The committee doesn't seem to have any evidence

Why would you want a target of the investigation to testify before you have even looked into the evidence?

Nune's has claimed that he hasn't seen any evidence, the IC seems to say that there is evidence out there, shouldn't the committee need time to have people investigate at least the circumstantial evidence and then dig deeper into these claims about payments, meetings, travel, shell companies and so on before they just let Manafort come testify that he's just a normal businessman and doesn't know any Russian spies?

It would seem to me that someone should be using using subpoenas to get financial records, for Manafort, taxes, ownership records in these shell companies phone records and so on, also sifting through all of the circumstantial evidence to determine what needs to be looked into further before you call Manafort in to answer any questions

[Tatiana]

15. Two things:

1. He wants a deal and/or protection.
2. He can finger the bigger fish to be fried.

[Abouttime]

18. He's flipping

This is very bad news for tRump.
Manafort knows where the bodies are buried, trump is going down for sure.

[wordpix]

16. coincidence Manafort volunteers & then Nunes cancels hearing?

I doubt it's coincidence. Nunes may have been one of the transitn team members who was surveilled. He should have resigned long ago

[madokie]

21. methinks

manafort wants to live a while longer is all

[FakeNoose]

22. Even if Manafort's testimony turns into a sham

... they still have Flynn singing like a canary, right?

I thought he chickened out and flipped this week, and that's what got everyone scared.

[UCmeNdc]

23. Special prosecutor with subpoena powers

There has to be a Special prosecutor with subpoena powers appointed to investigate Trump's administration Russian Spy contacts.

[DeminPennswoods]

25. Witnesses will be under oath

It will be interesting to see if/when each testifies if any cite their 5th amendment privileges. Manafort and Stone are long time operatives, but they don't know what the FBI, NSA or committee members know. They have to be careful what they say. Years ago, I got a piece of advice to never ask a question to which you didn't already know the answer as a way to gauge the truthfulness of the person to who you were talking. That would apply here, imho.

[kacekwl]

26. Manafort could stay in Russia under Putin

protection . His testimony means nothing . I don't see him caring about who else goes down

[frogmarch]

27. not sworn testimony?

Representatives for Manafort, who is represented by Reginald Brown with the law firm WilmerHale, emphasized that the appearances would be voluntary interviews, suggesting that it would not be sworn testimony.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/nunes-manafort-has-agreed-to-testify-before-congress-236463